Can bad valve seals burn this much oil?

Discussion in 'Engine/Drivetrain' started by 22Rtractor, Apr 26, 2016.

  1. 22Rtractor

    22Rtractor Newbie

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    Truck:
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    I've been ignoring little puffs of smoke at startup from my low miles 87 22R for a while now. It sits a lot, and I'm sure those old seals are pretty deteriorated. Lately it's getting worse though. In fact I just failed smog; it passed the actual measured emissions but they failed me on visual inspection because of the clouds of smoke when they hit the throttle.

    I'm losing a quart every 500 miles. Some days it blows lots of smoke on startup and continues to smoke when I let off the throttle at times. Other days there is no smoke at all, usually on hotter days.

    PCV is working
    Coolant level is normal and clean
    Leak down test was 5 - 6% loss on all cylinders
    Compression is 175lbs on all cylinders except for #3 which was a little over 160lbs
    #3 spark plug was the most oily of the 4

    Can I be losing this much oil through the seals or does it sound like something more is going on? Has anyone attempted to replace valve seals without removing the head bolts on, I've heard it's possible? Suggestions.
     
  2. Matt Eseroma

    Matt Eseroma Newbie

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    ya its possible, you just have rig something up to put air into cylinder with both valves closed to hold them up and prevent the valves from falling into the cylinder and then compress the valve spring then remove what's necessary and replace the seals. the guy who taught me a whole lot explained it to me, which make logical sense. And that's the way I would do it.
     
  3. fred heath

    fred heath Addict

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    A poster earlier on this forum tried to do the same thing. They ended up dropping a valve keeper into the block.
    I would pull the head and do a valve job at the same time.
     
  4. 22r

    22r Veteran

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    Was the compression and leak down test performed on a warm or cold engine? I have the same issue. After a quick teardown it was my cylinder and cylinder rings. The constant short trips prevented the engine on getting to full operating temp. On my 22r cylinder 3 took it the hardest. Hope this helps you out.
     
  5. 22Rtractor

    22Rtractor Newbie

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    I fixed it! It was the valve guide seals after all. I got some good replacement seals from LCE performance. The smoke is totally gone now. In addition to running cleaner, it also seems to idle much smoother.

    Of course now there is the new problem of getting the valve lash set so that the darn thing doesn't clatter all the time. I'm begining to have the notion that these "factory specs" of .008" intake and .012" at operating temp are an arbitrary myth.
     

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